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I came across, again, the film “Outland” the other day. I remembered this as an average piece of science fiction that tried to ride the coattails of “Star Wars” in the early 1980s. And I wanted to remember its having compelling qualities, like “Blade Runner,” which came out a year later. Certainly the movie’s star, Sean Connery, is worth watching.

Sadly, I’m not sure the movie holds up after 30 years. What struck me was how the criminal conspiracy at the heart of the plot seemed so commonplace. Perhaps it was less so at the time? It is hard to remember what we were all thinking back in 1981.

Sean Connery holding his spot in line for the toilet.

The story goes like this. Sean Connery is a space cop, or something. Really, he is dressed like a modern-day retiree: cheap hat with garish patch on the front, bright white tennis shoes, etc. The first time you see him head to toe, you expect to next see several blue-haired women push past him in a rush toward a restroom.

But let’s call him a space cop. His post is a mining complex on one of Jupiter’s moons that is owned by a big, I guess, multigalactical corporation or whatever. And after a while, Mr. Connery’s character grows suspicious about a series of mysterious deaths.

Really, the deaths are more spectacular than mysterious: they’re suicides by explosive decompression. Indeed, this is less a space-bound police procedural than the indulging of a gruesome science-fiction fetish.

In the spirit of Internet immediacy, here is a review of what I was reading online last week.

“Given the deep loyalty football engenders at all levels of play—a far more profound role than boxing ever enjoyed—it’s hard to imagine a comparable decline in popularity, let alone Pollard’s expectation of NFL extinction. Then again, smoking was once an essential rite of passage in America…” via Will Brain Injury Lawsuits Doom or Save the NFL? – Businessweek.

“Barclay’s dorm had quite a few engineers in it — and engineers, Barclay allows, are a problem.” For one thing, they did not like paying for long-distance phone calls. via Phreaking Out Ma Bell – IEEE Spectrum.

The filmmaker Werner Herzog on life: “The human race is not sustainable and there are too many things that can wipe us out. Microbes are really after us, and a meteor and a massive volcanic explosion.” via The Talks.

This sentence struck me as a kind of long-winded koan: “When you look at a competition where one of the inputs of the production function is an exogenously distributed characteristic, players with a high endowment on that dimension have a head start.” via The Best At What They Do « Cheap Talk. Click through if you are a fan of the N.B.A.

8:29 PM John
I like how Vick said this, and no one told him he is an idiot: “I’m a firm believer in God, and I believe in karma,” said Vick…

8:32 PM Samantha
karma, for him, will be a bitch. …Idiot

…There, I said it!

The formerly disgraced quarterback Michael Vick, when speaking to prospective N.F.L. rookies on Monday, displayed a rhetorical agility far greater than any head-turning juke he performed on a football field. Vick was addressing the league’s so-called rookie symposium, apparently as a designated bogeyman, having spent nearly two years in prison after being convicted for his role in an appalling dogfighting racket. As Vick put it:

Most media outlets took the new and improved Vick at full, fantasy value (ranked No. 19 in 2010!), describing his talk as candid and powerful. My own thinking was tackled by Vick’s assertion (in the same sentence!) that he is “a firm believer in God” and “in karma.”

He only looks angry. (From “Creation of the Sun and Moon” on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo.

I do not mean to endorse spiritual world views in this space, let alone promulgate my own, such as they are. But it does seem like part of the overall bargain that such views have a semblance of internal consistency. Vick’s seeming ignorance of the monumental clash between the monotheistic first clause of his comment and the polytheistic second clause is enough to cause serious, if only mental, injury.

To be fair to Vick, that dualistic mind-set jibes well with the rest of America, which seems to have no difficulty or compunction picking and choosing from among the bible’s many inconsistencies and contradictions, and then spending all evening watching TV programs about aliens, bigfoots and other supernatural oddities.

Vick goes on, as if cracking into a busted dialectical play. Vick warns that “if you don’t appreciate what God gave you,” “he’ll take that away from you.” In Vick’s case, of course, it was the federal government that took away what God “gave” him, not God himself, but the record in Scripture is not exactly clear. Some of the time, God takes it away from you even if you do appreciate it (Job 1:1). And some of the time, God just squares up his shoulders and goes linebacker all over you (Genesis 32:24-5).

The rest of Vick’s speech is a jumble of stale platitudes, not surprising from a football player but faithfully, disappointingly, reported by The A.P. and the N.F.L., among others: “You’ve got a lot of learning to do, a lot of life to live…”; “Your friend can’t make you do something you really don’t want to do if you’re strong enough to say no”; “Trust yourself”; “Once this is over, it’s over”; “Enjoy the ride.”

The best part, probably, is that most observers took Vick’s central message to be that rookies should not count on second chances. Apparently, that stems more from Vick’s notion of karma than whatever prison-Christian heresies he has adopted. Second chances are, or so I have read, a bedrock of Christian theology.

Like this:

If Seau committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest, it is similar to the way former Chicago Bears great Dave Duerson ended his life. …so that his brain could be examined for symptoms of CTE chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a trauma-induced disease common to NFL players and others who have received repeated blows to the head.

Easterling joins a growing number of former NFL players who have killed themselves in recent years, including former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson and former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Terry Long.

So, there are, now, more than 50 lawsuits against the N.F.L. related to head injuries, which takes in more than 800 defendants. Which is not yet 10 percent of the pool of retired players. Which means more lawsuits are sure to come.

From this, it is obvious that, if it is not already happening, insurance liability is going to become an onerous financial constraint for organized football. These pressures are sure to have a crippling effect, beginning with youth programs, extending through all levels and leading eventually, inexorably, to the N.F.L; the result will eventually be fewer teams, fewer players and fewer great performances.

I read a comment the other day in which someone said the former Saints assistant Gregg Williams was “done” in the N.F.L. That may only be partly right.

Maybe football only regresses to a level of popularity akin to the N.H.L. of the past decade. The real game changer will be the bloodthirsty American sports fan. I ask, How popular is the N.F.L. going to be if, in the future, “60 Minutes” starts doing news features on Hall of Famers like, say, Tom Brady, who sit glumly in rooms full of trophies and vacantly gum their oatmeal?

Footnotes

“And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.” – Exodus 32:14.

“Even then,
When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking,
And agony's forgot, and hushed the crying
Of credulous hearts, in heaven -- such are but taking
Their own poor dreams within their arms, and lying
Each in his lonely night, each with a ghost.” -- Rupert Brooke, 1913

“Unconceivable, unbelievable; Grammar like a hammer information receivable; Sent by the Lord, here and abroad; with words well adored now they can't be ignored!” Run DMC, “Tougher Than Leather”

“...some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, ‘Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!’ And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.” -- 2 Kings 2:23-24

"You don't get it, do you? This isn't 'good cop, bad cop.' This is fag and New Yorker. You're in a lot of trouble."